Sunday, 21 April 2013

New procurement policy to boost India's self-reliance in arms

Defence companies welcome "pathbreaking" policy

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 21st Apr 13

The Defence
Acquisition Council (DAC), the apex decision-making body of the Ministry of
Defence (MoD), has revised the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) that details
the process for buying defence equipment for the military. The MoD announced
today that the new policy, DPP-2013, has the twin objectives of “infusing
greater efficiency in the procurement process and strengthening the defence
manufacturing base in the country.”

DPP-2013 goes
beyond the earlier DPPs of 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2011 in explicitly backing
indigenous defence industry. It stipulates that Indian defence companies will
get access to the military’s long-term equipment roadmap, providing them with the
time needed for developing the equipment that the military needs in the future;
provides a level playing field between the defence public sector undertakings
(DPSUs) and the private defence companies; simplifies the “Buy & Make
(Indian)" procedure to benefit Indian industry; and defines ambiguous terms in
the DPP like “indigenous content.”

As Business
Standard has reported (Apr 13, “Ministry's initiative to push indigenous
development”) DPP-2013 stipulates that the “categorization” of each procurement
case should favour indigenization, with equipment being bought internationally
only if developing and building it in India proves impossible. “Categorization”
is a key decision in each acquisition project, in which the MoD decides whether
the equipment should be developed and built in India (“Buy Indian” and “Make”
categories); or built in India by an indigenous consortium (“Buy & Make
Indian”); or built in India with transfer of technology (“Buy & Make with
ToT”); or bought over-the-counter from a foreign vendor (“Buy Global”).

The MoD
announcement says that DPP-2013 “provides for a preferred order of
categorisation, with global cases being a choice of last resort. The order of
preference, in decreasing order, shall be: (1) ‘Buy (Indian)’; (2) ‘Buy & Make (Indian)’; (3) ‘Make’; (4) ‘Buy & Make with ToT’; and (5) ‘Buy
(Global)’. Any proposal to select a particular category must now state reasons
for excluding the higher preferred category/ categories.”

The MoD has also
granted a longstanding request by private defence companies for access to the
military’s 15-year Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP), so that they
have the lead time needed to meet future equipment needs. Today the MoD stated,
“The DAC has approved the release of a public version of its 15-year
perspective document (LTIPP), outlining the “Technology Perspective and
Capability Roadmap” (TPCR) against LTIPP 2012-2027. The TPCR will provide
useful guidance to the Indian Defence Industry for boosting its infrastructural
capabilities and directing its R&D and technology investments.”

An advantage that DPSUs and the Ordnance
Factory Board (OFB) have enjoyed over private defence companies has been the
MoD’s nomination of selected DPSUs as the recipients of Maintenance Transfer of
Technology (MToT) from foreign vendors in major acquisitions. For example, in aircraft
purchases (Jaguar, Sukhoi-30, Hawk, etc) Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has been
nominated by the MoD as the MToT partner, entitling it to receive the technology
and infrastructure needed to maintain, service, overhaul and upgrade the
aircraft through its service life. Now, levelling the playing field between
DPSUs and private industry, the MoD says, “MToT has been hitherto reserved
largely for OFB and DPSUs through the nomination process. A DPP amendment has
been approved that does away with nomination by Department of Defence
Production and facilitates selection of MToT partners by Indian bidders. This measure
is expected to have a positive impact on private sector participation in
maintenance, repairs and overhaul work.

Besides finalizing
DPP-2013, the DAC today also clarified important issues relating to defence
licensing. A “Defence Items List” has been finalized and sent to the Department
of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP, under the Commerce Ministry). An
explicit list of defence items will clarify which items actually need a defence
licence. The MoD has also informed the DIPP that dual-use items (with civil as
well as military applications) will not require licences.

The DAC has also
allayed apprehensions amongst foreign vendors and governments that information,
documents and technology transferred to the Indian defence industry may not be secure.
The DAC today finalized “Draft Security Guidelines” that will be circulated for
consultations with stakeholders, including licensed defence industries. The MoD
says, “a complete security framework for Indian private industries
participating in defence cases will be in place in the near future.”

The MoD also
cleared a keenly anticipated mechanism for providing Micro, Small and Medium
Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) with funds for developing defence equipment.
According to the MoD, “SIDBI has decided to earmark an amount of Rs 500 crore
for providing loans (to defence MSMEs), and further, a fund of Rs 50 crore for
equity support out of ‘India Opportunities Fund’ managed by its subsidiary,
namely, SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd.”

DPP-2013 goes a
long way towards addressing longstanding demands of the Indian defence
industry, particularly the private sector. Rahul Chaudhry, CEO of Tata Power (Strategic
Electronics Division) and Co-chair of Ficci’s Defence Committee says: “The
steps enumerated today will take India and Indian industry towards substitutive
self-reliance. The MoD has addressed several key industry recommendations.
We welcome this and eagerly await the details in the fine print of DPP-2013.”

Separately, in a
bid to speed up financial sanctions for capital procurement, the DAC has tripled
the financial powers of the army, navy, air force and coast guard chiefs from
the current Rs 50 crore to Rs 150 crore.

Finally, after a
succession of arms procurement scandals, most recently around the procurement
of AgustaWestland VVIP helicopters, defence minister AK Antony has divested
himself of discretionary powers to approve deviations from the DPP. Henceforth,
only the DAC will have this power.

Ten major changes in
DPP-2013

1.Self-Reliance: Indigenous development and manufacture to be favoured over foreign procurement.

2.Road map: Private industry to be given aTechnology Perspective
and Capability Roadmap (TPCR).

3.Level playing field: Maintenance
ToT to be given through bidding, not nomination of DPSUs/OFB.

4.Industry in loop: Military
to consult industry well before procurement so that acquisition plans can be
translated into “national defence R&D and production plans”.

5.Simplification: “Buy & Make (Indian)” procedure to be simplified to benefit private industry.

10 comments:

Descision on HTT-40 will soon make it clear if it just another case of Roman Candle or they are different this time. Trail by Fire if you may!

HTT-40 for one can be made available within 5 years and if this new policy is true by heart then regardless of what findings about LCC surfaces, this HTT-40 proposal should be through.

Anyway one must also ask why in changing threat scenario more SU-30 MKIs can't be preferred as option for strength argumentation than new M-MRCA. Especially when it is certain to come at far greater pace than what any new design would? ....I know adding LCA as an option with more sukhoies would be almost criminal.

What about locking down the QRs? Indian Army and AF have a habit of changing their QRs after a year or so, and that is the biggest problem in any project management. When a client keeps changing their mind during the project and do not adhere to the first QRs, the project will never finish on time or will be given up.

IA and IAF need to learn that when a project is complete, adopt it and then do M2, MK3 etc. Like the standard software industry does (look at the first apple iPhone compare to now ).

Are you sure this is not Smokes and Mirrors from MoD? They talked the same language in 2006 and put Vijay Kelkar forward & then burried his report. In 2011, the Defence Production policy was announced, similarly thru PIB and never heard about it since.

Indian Defence Industry is realing under the 20-25% devaluation of Ruppe v/s Dollar . Does the new policy address this?

why was this... not done so far... who were all... behind not implementing... on this line... Bureaucrats... Generals... Air Marshals... Defence Ministers... Prime Ministers... Left... Opposition... ???...

Salome came quickly to the point.She had 7 veils to shed. I fear that the denizens of South Block are simply putting on "the Dance of 7000 veils". As soon as the heat is off they will find excuses for sticking to BHEL/BEML/Et.Al. As Humphrey knew all along no Bureaucrat worth his chuprassi ever gives up the slightest amount of power. He would rather die first.